Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death

C. Mann and Laura Martin cover

Dodsons variant

Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death

Released: Mar 2016

Writer: Amy Chu

Pencils: Clay Mann

Inks: Seth Mann

Colours: Ulises Arreola

A comic I should have gotten into much earlier but I wasn't really aware of it until now. Where was the hype train on this one, DC? Anyway. 

Lovely covers. The variant classic HQ and PI by the Dodsons is it's usual work of art and I like the original cover too with it's traditional 'sexy' pose somewhat twisted by the look on Ivy's face and outfit. The new 52 outfit they gave Ivy was always a mixed bag depending on who was drawing it, this mix of classic Ivy face and new outfit works for me.  I like that the vines's she's lying on are in the shape of DNA and her flowers are growing lifeforms inside of them. 

 The art is amazing in this series. There are a lot of panels that could have been so cheesecakey, like the front cover or these two massive spreads of the main character and her cameo buddy - but they just aren't shown that way.

It's so refreshing!

As well as that, they're still drawn very attractively, but very realistically as opposed to the normal ridiculously posed stuff you get elsewhere.






It's nice to see Ivy at her scientist roots (he he) working under a mentor to get back into a real job - and you know, not just pheromone-ing everyone out of her way and wanting to destroy everything, eventually leading to her own downfall.

Poison Ivy - celebrated eco-terrorist and general hater of humankind actually respecting some humans and associating with them? Actually wanting to do something with her life besides seductive villain? Hell yeah I'm going to read this.

Hey, did you catch Harley Quinn's entrance?
Doesn't she look great in her flesh tone skin, blonde hair and the right colour scheme?

 Oh... alright, next scene we're in a bar and she's become Hardly Quinn?

What does she do all day? Have like ten showers and use a million boxes of tanning lotion and hair dye before doing anything??
Shoot, her hair's gotta be more brittle than Ariana's ponytail!

That said, even though she's wearing her usual stupid outfit to socialise she actually looks nice here. Well, nice for her.
Her stupid skin condition is just sooo stupid it hurts meee..
Heck, even Ivy bothered to get changed into casual Fridays and she can grow her own clothes!!

That and she's a pain in the ass to read. Girlfriends without the jealousy of monogamy? Sure, whatever. Harley can't deal with Ivy having something to do besides her and is an outright rude biatch to someone Ivy respects.

Everything Ivy says is an absolute offence to her.

Oh, I can't just waltz into your workplace whenever? Why not?
What do you need a hobby for? 
I'm not smart enough for you?? You think you're smarter than me?
How dare you spend so much time away from me? 
You spend too much time at work!
Why aren't you answering my texts?
You're not even human! 
I'm not mad, just violent! I'm not hitting you, but I'm going to take my frustrations out on these generic bar punks! 
How dare you bring up my past and my failed relationship!!

Considering Harley is literally one of the most recognisable characters to come out of an abusive relationship, it's a bit disappointing that Harley is written like a 'how not to relationship' warning label. She has literally come full circle now and is perpetuating an abusive relationship herself.

I wrote in a previous review about an older comic that Poison Ivy was a bad partner for Harley Quinn romantically because even when you look past the fact that Harley is a nutcase that shouldn't be shipped just because fan service..and because they generally have a sisterly relationship.


Poison Ivy is either written as demeaning, and treats Harley like crap, or is only there to be a bland, character less object to pair Harley with.
At least this Ivy has a damn backbone and tells Harley to shove her shit elsewhere. Also... is this Harley still 'with' the Joker? I'm so confused about the timeline.

Still, it's nice to read Harley without her ridiculous, OTT 'accent'. It even kind of explains why she's such a SJW and pot stirrer. She's clearly only written here as a minor antagonist for Ivy so I've got no misconceptions about this but I do find the fact that she's shown as such a jerk and so darn abusive that you fully agree with Ivy turning her away and wanting to find her own way in the world.
It somewhat subtly underlines the entire problem with the new Hardly Quinn character and reinforces why I hate her fan pandering relationship with the braindead Ivy found in her regular comic.

It's also so nice to have a comic about Poison Ivy. She always seemed so forgotten in the New52, she was shoe-horned into the new52 Birds of Prey, and other tie ins and even for the Suicide Squad relaunch, she was missing. Ivy, an original, and useful member of the Suicide Squad, passed over in favour of her one time bed buddy?

I really love that she's in a good place here, that she's accepted her volatile past and is moving on, trying to do the right thing. No matter how poorly or sporadically she's written she normally has one consistent factor, and that is her love of plants and her determination or rather, drive,  to do research.
Do yourself a favour because this comic is definitely worth a read.